Act Your Age
by Better a Freak Than A Fake
Summary: Co-Authored with Ashdash. They say you can only get better but as fifteen-year-old Cub learns, some can also stay exactly the same. Rated T for violence and gore (aka it's HTF) later on.


**Heyo! Got another co-authored story here. This time with Ashdash who you may or may not remember from A Tiny But Mighty Adventure. This time we have a relatively _normal_ story for you so enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: We do not own Happy Tree Friends or any of the characters but Candy or Cryo. All rights go to Mondo Media.**

Deep within the still, possibly forever, cursed town, a fifteen-year-old tan-colored bear was packing his backpack for the first day of high school. His "father" was nowhere to be seen, not that he hasn't had his whole life to get used to that. He made sure to put on his bi-colored beanie, just a larger version of the one he wore as a baby, before calling out, "Dad! I need to get to school!"

Finally appearing out of his bedroom, Pop yawns and replies, "Son, it's too early to go anywhere. Don't ya see what time it is?"

"Yes, I see what time it is and class starts in ten minutes, we need to move!" Cub said, wishing Pop would let him just go to the convenience store and get his own license but he says it's too expensive.

Yet the father somehow got his, despite being a terrible driver himself. Especially that one time when Cub was a baby, he got himself stuck in the sink because of, the usual, his father's carelessness.

Cub shook the thought out of his head wondering why his mind even insists on holding on to that memory when he should have been too young. Besides, anyone can get a license as long as they pay the money. Just look at Mole.

Pop comes down the stairs and grabs the keys off the table. "Okay, okay. Don't rush me. Geez."

Not being surprised at what he just said, he shrugged it off and went to the door, signaling his father to hurry up anyways.

"Dad, I don't want my teacher's first impression of me to be that I show up late for class." Cub had also heard that Happy Tree High puts late students in detention no matter what.

"Don't worry, son. You're not gonna be late." The father bear said as they both got out of the house and into his car. He puts the key into the ignition to start it.

He turned on the radio to find a good song to listen to while driving, but got interrupted by, once again, his son, "Dad, I'm gonna be late and it's gonna be your fault because you had to play with the radio. Just drive!"

"Fine." And he did just that, though a little irritated because he can't listen to some tunes.

Cub burried his face into the dashboard as the car crashed through their fence, through other friend's yards, narrowly but luckily missed other vehicles, knocked over road signs and mailboxes, and the list only went on. "Dad, just pay attention to the road for ONCE." Cub snapped, wishing again that he had his own license.

"I would concentrate a lot better if I had something to listen to!" He tells him.

Of course he would say that. Why not blame the son for being a terrible driver. He then starts to wonder if this is what his mother would have been like if she were here now.

The thought came to an instant stop as the car itself finally pulled over in front of the high school. Cub grabs his backpack and gets out of the car, telling his dad, "Bye."

"Bye, Son!" Pop called, with a big smile. "I'll pick you up at five!"

"School's over at two-thirty," Cub corrected, figuring that he's going to end up walking home. It wouldn't be so bad if Pop was the only one who liked to drive on sidewalks and other non-road places.

He ran into the humongous school, which the size itself doesn't help him at all, considering that he only has less than three minutes until class starts. Not only that, the school is entirely new to the young bear, so there would be a better chance for him to get lost.

Still, he had to try, not wanting to go to detention on his first day. Not that he was too excited about going back home to his "father".

Right at the second he walked into his first hour class, the bell rang, signaling it was the start of school.

Cub sighed, glad to have made it on time and took a seat in the only remaining desk in the front of the class. As soon as he did, a purple squirrel jumped on him without warning and was niddling on his beanie.

"Hey! Get off me you psycho!" He called out, hopefully this weird squirrel would listen.

"But you're wearing candy!" The squirrel shouted, continuing to obsessively try to eat Cub's beenie. "And I REALLY love candy! It's the best thing isn't it? I could eat it all day!"

Cub growled and finally managed to push her off him before checking his beenie for damage. Besides being very wet with saliva, it seemed fine. "You're Nutty's daughter, aren't you?" He hissed out the name in clearly still held hatred.

The squirrel tilted her head, then nodded so hard he hoped it would cause her whole head to fall off. "Yes, I am! How did you know?! My name's Candy! You know, like candy! And yours?!"

 _'Figures he'd name his own child after his addiction,'_ the young bear thought, then told the crazy squirrel, "I'm Cub. Son of the worst father in the universe, sadly."

"You're Cub…?" Candy drawled out, seeming to toss that name around in her small brain before realizing, "Oh! Daddy told me about you! Said you're a big meanie!"

"Why is that?"

Candy only shrugged, finally getting up from the ground. "Says he knew you back when you were a baby. Something about stealing... and candy…" Candy suddenly gasped, glaring at him accusitively and Cub noticed that though her eyes were both blak dots, one of them was also googly. "You stole my Daddy's candy?! What kind of monster steals another friend's candy?!" She squeezed her backpack, which he could only assume is full of candy, protectively against her.

The young bear got up from his seat and slowly took a couple steps back. He then defended himself by telling her, "What do you mean _I_ stole his candy?! Why the hell would a baby steal anything?"

"That's what I'm asking you!" Candy reminded, pulling some candy out of her bag and shoving it into her mouth. "Though, babies do like candy more than anyone! Of course it was you!"

Though it's true that babies love candy, he's never heard of a baby as crazy and psychopathic about it as Nutty himself. No baby ever literally wears candy as clothes.

"I'm pretty sure it was the freaky one known as your dad. Sure I like candy, but I wouldn't DATE one, for crying out loud! Dude, do you have any idea what he would go through for a grain of sugar? He'd jump off a cliff and risk his own like for it!

"You don't know what your talking about! Candy is the best thing in the world and it's not like he'd die forever jumping off a cliff! Don't act like my Daddy's some kind of crazy squirrel for liking sugar that much!" Candy shouted, getting dangerous. "Besides, he controls himself just fine around Mommy! I doubt a baby would."

"What's not crazy about a grown squirrel stealing candy from a baby and not give two shits about it? Oh, right. I forgot. I'm talking to the sugar addict's child." He gestures to her. Of course, she'll never agree with someone who's not her parents. It's not like they're normal and everyone else is not.

"Don't twist that so that my Daddy stole your candy! I know what happened!"

"Yeah. You know because you were there. That makes sense."

Before Candy had an attempt to respond, the teacher walked into the room. Of course, Lumpy would be the teacher for Math class. "Good morning, class. As you all know, my name is Mr. Lumpy, and I will be your math teacher this year." He sat at his teachers desk, with a look of boredom spread across his face, and took the clipboard. "Before we begin, let's take attendance."

Cub knew almost none of the kids their, Pop had kept him pretty issolated and it was just this year that Pop finally agreed to let him go to normal school. Luckily, despite having recieved no real education, Cub was already one of the most intelligent in town. Not that it's saying much.

"Candy?" Mr. Lumpy called out.

"Oh! Oh! Me! That's me!" Candy called practically jumping out of her seat.

Lumpy ignored the exuberance, having expected that from sugar freak jr. "Alright, Cryo."

"Here." Cub turned to see a yellow marmot covered in what seemed to be a layer of ice, yet, he raised his hand without effort.

 _'Is that even possible?'_ he thought. It didn't take him too long to remember that they're living in Happy Tree Town and that, literally, anything can happen and not make sense. "Right, need to remember that from now on."

"Cub?" Lumpy asked, gathering everyone's attention. Almost none of them knew him and in such a small town, that was a BIG deal.

As soon as he heard his name called out, he replied, "Here," letting the teacher know that he was in class.

He then received strange and confused looks from several students. "Who's Cub?" Were some of their thoughts. "I've never seen him around," were the thought of others.

He noticed that Cryo was looking at him differently then the other students, Cub couldn't place what was going through his head but Cryo mouthed to meet him after class.

Although he has no idea why him in particular, he has decided to do so. Either this could be a good thing, meaning that they could be friends, or this being a bad thing and that something bad is gonna happen to him right after his first hour class. The more he thought about it, the more likely it'll be that the bad part will happen.

* * *

The rest of role and then class went on without much of note, then Cub met Cryo outside the classroom.

"You called for me?" The young bear asked.

"Yes, I overheard you talking to Candy before class, said you have the worst father in the universe."

How he knew was beyond him. It creeped him out a little bit, now knowing that he somewhat "stalked" him. "Y-yeah. Why you ask?"

"Well, I challenge that." Cryo said simply, with a light, humorless laugh. "My 'father' is definitely worse than yours."

"Does he ignore everything you say and does whatever, making yourself question about whether or not to find a new parent? Or not caring that today is your first day of school and takes you in almost late?" Cub asks, obviously accepting the challenge.

Cryo laughed and said, "I'm pretty sure he LITERALLY doesn't know I exist. I had to walk everywhere until I got enough money myself to buy a driver's license."

"At least you actually have money to get it yourself. My dad doesn't give me any money and he "can't afford" to buy me mine.

"Of course not, I had to get on the schedule and earn my own like the adults do. Have you ever considered doing that?"

"... No, not really."

"Well, you should. It'll also give you a legitimate reason to stay away from your father if he's really as bad as you're trying to claim."

Cub had immediately put that thought into mind right before the bell rang for second class.

"Well, if you decide to do it, all you need to do is tell Lumpy and he'll gladly add you," Cryo told him, before heading to his second class.

He watched Cyro walk away while thinking about what he just said. Having a job does sound nice. Having your own money and finally being able to drive yourself anywhere anytime. "Hmm. Maybe I will." He told himself before heading to second class.

* * *

After school, Cub headed out, set to find Lumpy since he'd already left teaching for another job but once he got outside, Candy ran by and got in the passenger seat of a car with the most unusual sight in the driver's seat.

To make sure he wasn't hallucinating, he tightly closed his eyes and shook his head a couple times. Sure enough, he still sees the red heart shaped box of chocolates sitting behind the wheel, wearing a pair of sunglasses. _'That is messed up,'_ he thought to himself. "This fucking town. Never getting used to it."

"Maybe I should check the police station first." He then started to head over to the said place to find the town authority.

Luckily, he did find him there. "Officer Lumpy, Sir." He greeted in the most respectful way possible.

 **Yes I refuse to pair Nutty with anyone but his chocolate wife from "A Sucker For Love". Normally I don't like HTF OCs but this story demanded it and there are more to come. Please review.**


End file.
